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When money talks in elections, sometimes it says, 'Help!'

A host of heated campaigns in Southeast Michigan are seeing an influx of cash in the final days before Tuesday’s primary election.

The campaigns and political action committees that support them had to file their financial statements with the Michigan Department of State on July 20, and the record of any money that comes in after that has to be submitted to the state within 48 hours.

Sometimes these late donations are just that, donations that came in after the July 20 deadline. But they can also signal which campaigns feel they are in need of help in the final days before an election.

Nowhere is that more clear than in the 15th Senate District — where in the past week, Sen. Mike Kowall, R-White Lake Township, has received more money in late donations than his challenger, Matt Maddock, has received all year.

Maddock, a tea party favorite who is president of A-1 Bail Bonds Agency Inc. in Milford Township, is providing a much tougher challenge to Kowall’s bid for a second term than originally thought.

And the level of that challenge can be seen in the $66,000 in late contributions Kowall has received.

Maddock has raised just shy of $63,000 all year. He has also received $8,600 in late contributions.

Kowall had already raised more than $280,000 this election cycle and still had $80,000 in the bank before this recent influx of money.

Another eye-popping number comes from a heated Macomb County race for the 36th House District seat.

Attorney Peter Lucido of Lucido & Manzella PC in Clinton Township, gave his campaign $165,000 after the deadline.

His campaign had already spent more than $186,000 in the campaign and was left with just $5,580 cash on hand before he wrote his latest checks to himself. More than $130,000 of the money he had already spent was also his own.

His opponent, Shelby Township Clerk Stan Grot, received $3,000 in late donations to add to his more than $22,000 in cash on hand. He has spent more than $75,000 so far on the campaign, and more than $30,000 of that was his own money.

In the heavily Democratic 2nd District, Sen. Bert Johnson, D-Highland Park, received $7,000 in donations after the filing deadline. As of Friday, he had $7,600 in cash on hand.

While it’s not much money when compared with some of the other races, it’s a ton more than his opponent, Rep. John Olumba, D-Detroit, has.

Olumba filed for a waiver from having to report his campaign finances to the state because he plans to raise less than $1,000 during the campaign.

In the 11th Senate District in southern Oakland County, Democratic incumbent Vincent Gregory received $18,500 in late contributions, with the bulk coming from a $15,000 donation from the United Automobile Workers PAC.

His Democratic opponents — state Reps. Ellen Cogen Lipton of Huntington Woods and Vicki Barnett of Farmington Hills —received $3,500 and $3,000, respectively, in late donations.

But it’s Gregory that is in more need of the money, because after getting into the race late after considering a run for the U.S. House of Representatives, he only raised less than $56,000 this election cycle and had just over $11,000 in the bank.

Whereas Lipton raised more than $150,000 this year and still has almost $19,000 in the bank.

In the race for Wayne County executive, a few late donations came in from two super PACs.

The Turnaround Wayne County SuperPAC, which is supporting Warren Evans, raised more than $270,000 by the filing deadline but received an additional $15,700 in late donations.

The Fix Wayne County Now SuperPAC, which is supporting state Rep. Phil Cavanagh, D-Redford Township, raised $55,000 by the filing deadline and saw an additional $2,600 come in after the deadline.

Expect plenty more money to flow into all these campaigns throughout the week.